Shall we dance? Authority, representation, and voice: The place of spirituality in religious education

This article considers issues raised by attempting to place spirituality in the context of religious education. While, this might appear to be the lea st problematic for marriages, or most obvious pairing of dancing partners, when considering how it can be addressed in other curriculum subjects, on c loser inspection, perhaps it gives rise to some of the most disturbing issu es formal education has to face. These issues range across interconnected t hemes related to philosophical inquiry, national context and tradition, soc ial values, and the rights of citizens in democratic communities. The argum ent presented is that whether, when we interrogate these issues in the cont ext of different social histories, with special reference to England and Wa les, we find that the concept of spirituality questions current constructs of education and religious education.